views and insight from ….

Leaving aside those irritating meerkats, Michael Winner and the fat opera singer, how often do you compare insurance quotes for your home, car and so on. Every renewal I expect.

But when I speak to business owners about their accountant, although a fair proportion of them say they would change to get better value (by which I mean both in cost and service terms), few of them actually test the market. Instead they stick with their provider who in most cases has given them a decent enough service.

So here we have one of those strange scenarios where we spend time trying to save a hundred quid on our car insurance and don’t bother with the several hundred or more that could be saved by switching accountants.

Why is this? Some believe that the relationship with the accountant is worth more than the cost saving, which may well be true some of the time, but to answer this point we need to look at what you are getting from your accountant at the moment. For businesses that have a “see you next year” accountant this will be simply the preparation of statutory accounts, the related tax accounts and their filing with HMRC. You might get your personal tax return done as well if you’re lucky. From our recent experience, businesses with those types of accountant can in cost terms alone save between 25% and 40%. But if you factor in the value that an accountant who’d prefer to see the relationship as a 2-way one ……..

For more information on how to compare and change accountants please contact Chris Dixon.